NEW Quilting Book Review: Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs by Kelly Young

In today's post, we're taking a brand-new quilt book for a test drive: Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs by Kelly Young, available here on Amazon.  (Full disclosure: this post contains affiliate links, and I was provided with a free advance copy of this book so I could review it for you).  Overachiever that I am, I made not one but TWO of the pieced backing projects in this book, and I will be using this book for a lot more than just quilt backings...  I'll get to that later!

Initially I was interested in this book as a resource to keep in my office for the times when clients come to drop off a quilt for long arm quilting and their backing doesn't quite meet my minimum size requirements.  I run into this issue a lot, especially with the charity quilting I do for the Outreach program of the Charlotte Quilters' Guild.  When the volunteers on the Outreach team put fabric kits together for our members to take and sew, they often size the backing fabric just a few inches larger than the quit top should finish.  That works great for guild members who are quilting on a domestic machine, but it doesn't give me the allowances I need for loading the backing onto the canvas leaders of my long arm frame.  The first project I'm sharing from Kelly's book is the simplest one in there, and it was the perfect solution for enlarging a too-small backing for one of these guild outreach quilts.

First Pieced Backing: Walking Path

I Just Love How the Quilting Shows Up on the Plain Old Muslin Strip!

I didn't have any leftovers from this patriotic themed quilt top to work with, so I just cut a wide strip of plain old boring muslin and inserted it into the original backing fabric following Kelly's instructions for the Walking Path backing.  Once quilted, the muslin looks terrific.  I just love how the quilting design that is completely lost against that busy navy print fabric springs to life on the muslin strip!  That quilting design I used is Feathered Spirals E2E, designed by Jess Ziegler, stitched in So Fine 50 wt thread, color Snow, and I used the Pellon 80/20 With Scrim batting provided by my guild.

 

Here's the front of that quilt:

CQG Donation Quilt with Feathered Spiral E2E

Isn't it pretty?  I forgot to write down the dimensions of that quilt before I turned it in at our guild meeting for another member to bind.  With the Americana themed fabric prints, this quilt will likely be given to a child who is hospitalized over the Independence Day holiday.  Most of our donation kit quilts have very simple piecing, and the "walking path" pieced backing with a single contrast strip is a great choice for enlarging the backing without making it compete for attention with the quilt top.  But, flipping through the book there were so many other fun ideas...  

Lucky Stars and Oriana for Ramona: Behind the Scenes with Backing, Design Choice, and Thread Selection

Good morning, my lovelies!  I have missed you!  These past few weeks have been busy for me with travel, family celebrations, and moving Son-the-Elder into his off-campus apartment at Appalachian State, and as a result I have quite a backlog of quilts to share with you.  Today we're looking at two gloriously colorful quilts, both made by my client Ramona who blogs at Doodlebugs and Rosebuds Quilts.  

Ramona's Lucky Stars Quilt

Detail of Lucky Stars with Grecian E2E

First up is Lucky Stars, a pattern by Atkinson design that you can find here on Etsy (this post contains affiliate links).  Lucky Stars is a fat-quarter-friendly pattern that is perfect for showing off Ramona's collection of Kaffe Fassett prints and batiks.  I love how the sawtooth star blocks are designed so the stars float just within the background fabric -- no risk of losing your star points if your piecing is less than perfect, which makes this a great pattern for beginners, too.  I am adding this to my own ever-lengthening list of wanna-make-its!  Wouldn't this be great as a baby quilt? 

Ramona's 76 x 91 Lucky Stars Quilt with Grecian E2E

This quilt was unusual for me in that, after some initial back-and-forth with design options, Ramona ultimately left the choice of the quilting design completely up to me and she had no idea how I was quilting her Lucky Stars until it was finished.  Ordinarily I consult with clients and make design recommendations, but get their approval on the final selection.  

Friday Quilt Finish: Color Outside the Lines is Ta-Done at Last!

 

63 x 63 Color Outside the Lines, Bear Paw + Sawtooth Star Blocks

Happy Friday, y'all!  I have a quilt finish to share with you today!  I finally put the last hand stitches into the binding of my Color Outside the Lines quilt last night, wrapping up a languishing WIP (Work In Progress) that I started way back in 2014.  Woo-hoo!

I Hope You Appreciate the Azaleas...

I goaded my grouchy and reluctant husband into driving around with me to find a photo location with azaleas in the exact shade of pink as the hand dyed fabric patches in the center of my bear paw blocks.  I was like the Knights Who Say Nih from Monty Python -- "YOU MUST BRING ME A SHRUBBERY!!!!!"  Also, I told him that none of the OTHER quilters' husbands complain that their arms are sore from holding the quilt up for so long.  😏. 

Remember what this quilt top looked like before I quilted it?  Here's that Before picture again:

Backing Seamed, Borders In Progress, and a Mismatched Pattern Lament

First of all, I want to thank those of you who reached out to me with words of encouragement, commiseration, empathy, and scripture after my last dispirited post.  As burdensome as this forced isolation is, it would be so much worse without technology and the Internet as a lifeline of connection.  I love all of you so much!

Spirit Song Quilt Top on Wall, Backing Fabric on Ironing Board

Okay, so I only actually sewed ONE seam on Monday, but at least it's something that is crossed off the list now, right?  It took me over an hour to clear off everything from my cutting table, finding homes for everything rather than just shifting piles from one surface to another.  Then I had to change my needle, wind a bobbin, thread the machine with matching thread, tear my fabric edges along the grain line, snip and tear at the center point, press both lengths of fabric, pin them together, sew the seam, and then press the seam open.  Whew!!  Just TYPING all of that is exhausting!  ;-)

I Sewed a Seam Yesterday!

You who know be best will understand that it PAINS ME to post this photo on the Internet, flaunting the mismatched pattern repeat for all the world to see.  Am I doing this as an exercise in humility, or as an act of self-flagellation?  Either way, it had to be done -- I have nothing else to show for myself, and no one wants to read a rambling blog post without any pictures!

See? I AM Perfectly Capable of Pattern Matching!

I know the lighting is awful in that photo, but there is a vertical seam running straight down the center of the photo that you can only see because the seam allowance creates a white "stripe" where the dark table doesn't show through.  I would have loved to be able to match the pattern like that on my quilt backing, even though I would have had to purchase additional fabric and even though it would have taken me more time.  Note to quilting fabric manufacturers: I love your beautiful fabrics, but I wish you guys were better about ensuring that large scale repeats could be matched just within the selvages, and I wish you published the horizontal and vertical repeats for your prints the way home dec fabric manufacturers do.  The drapery fabric shown above is a 54" wide drapery weight linen from Robert Allen (Eleria pattern in Graphite, but this project was 7 years ago so the fabric may be discontinued by now).  The large scale print has a horizontal repeat of 54" (the full fabric width) and a 27 3/4" vertical repeat that matches up approximately 1/2" to 3/4" inside the selvages, and that's typical for home dec fabrics marketed for interior design use.  So, because the repeat information is on the memo samples, web site, and every fabric bolt, you (or your interior designer/workroom) can easily calculate how much additional yardage needs to be purchased in order to match up every seam perfectly like the one in the photo above.  

Yes, There Are Two vertical Seams in This Window Treatment

Even with the variety of extra-wide quilt backing fabrics that we have today, I still find myself frequently falling in love with a 44" wide fabric print for a quilt backing.  

In Flight, color Indigo, from Free Spirit Fabrics

With this particular fabric (pattern "In Flight," color Indigo, from Murmur collection by Valori Wells for Free Spirit Fabrics, available from various etsy sellers here), I believe I'd have lost a good 10-12" of fabric width if I'd brought that seam all the way in to where the patterns would match, and of course I would have needed additional yardage to do that, too, which I did not remember when purchasing the fabric...  It might have been possible for me to achieve a pattern match with this fabric if I'd purchased additional yardage, but the entire state of North Carolina is under lockdown now due to COVID-19 and our governor and health officials do not understand that stores that sell fabric are essential businesses supporting the mental health of quilters!  And so, we make do.  I know; it's just the backing, but for the hundreds of hours that go into designing and crafting a quilt, I really would like to be able to match my patterns on my backing seams!  So: 

NOTE TO SELF FOR NEXT TIME: When considering a large scale print backing fabric, VERIFY & MEASURE PATTERN REPEAT AT THE QUILT SHOP and increase yardage to accommodate pattern matching!

That's a note to quilt shops as well, by the way.  If shop associates who are working at your cutting table ask customers what their intended use is for large scale patterned fabric and offer to help calculate how much extra would be needed to match the pattern repeat for a quilt backing, it's a win-win.  Happy customer with invisible pattern matched seam on the back of his or her quilt, and happy shop that is selling more fabric!  Whatever -- it's done, it's nice and flat and square, measuring 94" x 87" so it's plenty big enough for my Spirit Song quilt top, and it's ready to load on my longarm frame.  

And so I moved on to my borders.  The 1" FW (finished width) inner border for this quilt is from the same fabric collection (Dots in Blue, Murmur Collection by Valori Wells for Free Spirit Fabrics, available from Etsy sellers here).  

Dots in Blue, Free Spirit Fabrics

As you can see, this fabric has dots arranged in a subtle stripe pattern that runs parallel to the selvages.  I briefly considered cutting my borders on the cross grain to display the striped effect, but decided that my quilt top had enough going on already.  And so, to avoid that blue stripe from showing up randomly in one or two borders but not in all of them, I cut the lengthwise borders one at a time, single layer, avoiding the area where the dots are spaced farther apart.  

1.5 Inch CW Blue Borders and 5 Inch CW Floral Borders

The wider outer border fabric went faster, since I was able to cut those strips with the fabric folded and let the blossoms land wherever they wanted.  That's another one from Free Spirit Fabrics, by the way -- they seem to be my current favorite quilt fabric company!

Painted Daisy in Magenta, Kaffe Fassett Collective for Free Spirit Fabrics

In case you're as smitten with this fabric as I am, I should warn you that it's an older, non-reorderable pattern.  However, as of this writing there are some Etsy sellers who still have some Painted Daisy fabric here.  

First Border Pinned, Ready to Stitch!

So far I've attached two of the skinny blue borders to the long sides of my quilt.  Hopefully today I will get ALL of the remaining borders sewn to the quilt top, and maybe even get Spirit Song loaded on the longarm frame!  

SEW...  Time to revisit last week's sewing goals:

Last Week's To-Do List for March 25-31

1. Procure batting for my Spirit Song quilt
2. Add borders to Spirit Song to complete quilt top.
3. Piece Spirit Song backing
4. Make Spirit Song binding and set aside
5. Load SOMETHING on my frame -- either a practice piece, a charity top, or the Spirit Song quilt -- and START QUILTING!

Well, I accomplished two out of five and the third is in progress.  Looking at that list again today, I realize that I should have put down "Clean up studio, clear off cutting table" on the list as well, because that needed to be done before I could accurately measure, cut, or pin large pieces of fabric and I always underestimate how long those "housekeeping" tasks will take.  Getting my workspace organized and set up for what I want to do next should definitely count towards productivity, don't you think?  With that in mind, here's what I hope to accomplish in the studio this week:

Tuesday's To-Do List (on Wednesday!) for April 1-7

1. Attach remaining borders to Spirit Song to complete quilt top
2. Set up longarm machine for quilting: Clean and oil machine, new size 3.5 needle, thread with monofilament in needle and either So Fine or Bottom Line in the bobbin.  Test tension and do some "warmup practice stitching" 
3. Load Spirit Song on longarm frame
4. Begin SID (Stitch In the Ditch) quilting with monofilament thread

And of course, my One Monthly Goal for April is to get Spirit Song completely quilted!  If I could have it labeled and bound by the end of the month, too, that would just be the icing on the cake.  Wish me luck!

I'm linking today's post with:

·       One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts: Elm Street Quilts  

·       Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

·       Let’s Do Some Ruler Work at The Quilt Yarn

·       Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

·       Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

·       Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

(I'm not actually linking up with the Ruler Work linky today, just visiting the other links since I didn't quite get to any ruler quilting yet.  But I'll be visiting the other link partiers for inspiration, and hope to link up some ruler quilting later this week since Karen's link party runs for a full week).

Stay home, stay safe, and HAPPY STITCHING!

Hey, Rebecca! This Is How You Prepare Your Quilt Backings! Reminders To Myself for Next Time

The flying geese arcs for my son's graduation quilt are coming along nicely.  39 are finished, and 9 more are needed.  Each paper pieced arc of geese is taking approximately an hour and a half to two hours to complete.  So this week, even before I finish piecing those arcs, I think I need to start cutting out the purple background fabric and working out the kinks of the curved piecing required to turn these arcs of geese into quilt blocks.

This Week's Accomplishments, Bagged, Labeled and Ready for Quilting

But meanwhile, I had some loose ends to tie up with other projects in progress.  Quilt backings!  Remember last week's post, where I said I "just" needed to press, cut into lengths, and seam the backing fabric for my pineapple log cabin quilt?  HAHAHA!!!  How easily I forget how challenging it is to wrestle with accurately measuring and cutting such long pieces of fabric.  It reminds me of trying to make drapery panels, without the help of the giant worktables in a drapery workroom.

I wasted a good hour consulting all of my different quilt books, my APQS Millennium manual and beginner's class notes, etc., trying to remember how much bigger the backing needed to be than the quilt top, whether the seam should be pressed to one side or pressed open, etc.  To save time on future projects, I'm going to be recording all of that information in this post where I can find it more quickly next time around.

• Quilt Top Size + 12" Added to Each Dimension is My Ideal Backing Size.  

• Quilt Top Size + 8" Added to Each Dimension is My Minimum Backing Size for Longarm Quilting.  

• Canvas Leaders on my 12' APQS Millennium Quilting Frame Measure 131 1/2"

• 126" is the Largest Quilt Top I Can Load on My 12' Frame

For my 120" x 120" pineapple log cabin top, I'm using a 45" wide fabric so I'll need three full fabric widths for my backing.  I did NOT prewash the backing fabric this time (due to the unwashed yardage and unwashed jelly roll strips used in the quilt top) and I wanted to cut it into 130" lengths to give me an extra 5" on all sides of the quilt (quilt top + 10") when I load it onto my longarm frame.  My canvas leaders on the 12' frame are only about 132" long, so this is pretty much my max size.  

I wanted the backing lengths to be exactly the same length so there would be no easing of one panel to the next (which would increase the opportunity for ugly puckers or pleats to form in the backing during quilting).  And I wanted my backing to be perfectly square and perfectly on grain, again because the more "perfect" I can make my backing, the LESS trouble I will have loading it straight and quilting it successfully.

Pattern Weights Hold Yardage In Place While I Measure Where to Make the Cut

So I tore the fabric to get straight of grain edges.  And I measured my 130" lengths by smoothing a length of fabric down the edge of my 97" table, marking the 97" point with a pin, and then shifting the fabric down another 33" to the place where I needed to snip and tear the fabric.  This worked well; when I pinned the lengths of fabric prior to seaming them, they were virtually the exact same length.  

Measuring 130 inch Lengths of Fabric on a 97 Inch Table

Needless to say, just cutting my yardage into the three panels I needed for the backing took a lot longer than I thought it would when I said "I just need to cut the backing fabric into lengths and seam them together."  

Pinning Backing Lengths for Seaming, Selvages Still Attached

Once I'd cut my backing into three equal lengths, I pinned them together along the selvage edges prior to seaming them.  Why?  Because of past experiences seaming long lengths of unpinned fabric together and the feed dogs ever so slightly shifting the bottom layer along faster than the top layer, that's why.  Dual feed helps with that, a walking foot helps with that, but the only 100% foolproof way to sew a 130" long seam without the layers shifting is to pin them together!  I leave the selvages on until after sewing the seams because my goal is a perfectly straight seam, and the selvages give me a very stable, straight edge from which to measure my seam line.  Selvage widths vary slightly from one fabric to another, so I set up my seam guide (this is the guide that screws into the bed of my machine) so that my seamline is approximately a half inch inside the selvage.  Yet another reason I prefer this seam guide to the ones that are attached to the presser foot itself -- I can use it for any width seam allowance, not just 1/4".  

Seaming Backing Panels with Seam Guide, Selvages Still Attached

• Seam Backing Panels with Matching Thread, 50/3 or 50/2 Cotton, Using Piecing Straight Stitch #1326 (Stitch Length 2.0, or 10-12 stitches per inch) and Half Inch Seam Allowance. That's because, once pressed open, the thread may show in the seam.

After seaming the backing panels together, I trim away the selvages with my rotary cutter and acrylic ruler before pressing the seams open.  I experimented with using the pinking blade rotary cutter for this step, thinking it might make for a softer ridge at the edges of the seam allowances, but the pinking blade kept skipping even though it was a brand new blade.  I decided the straight cut works just fine.

Trimming Backing Selvages AFTER Seaming Panel Lengths

All of this prep work paid off with smooth, straight seams and a square, flat, appropriately sized backing.  

Trimmed and Pressed Open

The backing SEAMS measure exactly 130", but the pieced backing measures about 132" in the direction that is perpendicular to the seams -- three widths of fabric minus two seam allowances.  The backing will be loaded onto the longarm frame with the seams parallel to the roller bars so that backing seams are not wrapping around the rollers and building up bulk.  That means that I'll be pinning straight selvage edges to my canvas edges (snipping the selvage every few inches to relax the tighter weave) and the couple of extra inches of backing will be in the length of the backing rather than the width.  This is a good thing -- I do NOT want to get the end of quilting this monster only to realize that the backing is too short for the quilt!

Once I'd seamed the backing, pressed seams open, and given the entire backing a final pressing, I had to enlist my husband's help to get it folded and onto a hanger for storage.  I use the pants hangers we get from the dry cleaners for smaller quilts, but for the pineapple quilt top and its backing I needed to use the larger hangers that the dry cleaner gave me when I brought my linen tablecloths in to be cleaned.  

Just as I did with the binding kick I was on a few days prior, I got other backing fabrics ready for quilting while I was in Backing Mode.  My Modern Baby Clam Shell quilt is only going to measure 40" x 40", so that backing just needed to be pressed, folded on the hanger, and bagged with the binding strips and binding thread.

Pressing Baby Clam Backing for Storage; (Vintage Repair Top on Wall Behind)

The vintage quilt repair backing got prewashed in HOT water (since the fabrics in the quilt top have been subjected to so many washings over the years), pressed, seamed, folded and bagged with the binding strips and binding thread.

Vintage Quilt Backing Seamed and Ready to Load

And I attempted to do the same thing with the backing fabric for my Jingle quilt top, only to discover that I had nowhere near enough of that fabric to back that quilt with it!  Aargh!  

This Will Not Be My Jingle Backing Fabric, After All!

Well, better to find that out NOW rather than waiting until the day I hope to start quilting it, right?  I found a replacement 108" wide backing fabric for my 72" x 72" Jingle quilt, ordered 2 1/4 yards of it and prewashed it in the Sanitation cycle of my washing machine to shrink it as much as humanly possible.  All of the blocks and fabrics in the Jingle quilt top had to be repeatedly soaked in boiling hot water with Dawn dish soap to get all of the bleeding dye out, so I wanted to make sure that my backing had the opportunity to do all of its shrinking ahead of time, too.

New 108" Wide Backing Fabric for Jingle Quilt 

This will be fine.  Jingle was always meant for wall display, so no one is going to be looking at the backing fabric anyway.

So now, when I look in my guest bedroom closet, this is what I see:

These Are All Ready for Quilting!

There are three completed quilt tops in this closet that are neatly bagged along with everything needed to load them on the longarm and start quilting: Paint Me a Story, Jingle, and Pineapple Nostalgia.  There is also backing prepared and binding strips cut for the Vintage Repair quilt and the Modern Baby Clam Shell.  Everything is tagged with sizes and notes about batting, color matched binding thread is included with each one, too (I always forget that I'm going to want a strong, construction-weight matching thread for sewing down the binding) and even preliminary quilting thread selections for a couple of them.  Knowing that I have these projects ready to quilt and waiting for me when I return from Paducah Quilt Week in April feels really good -- I'm going to want to reinforce all of the new skills I've learned in my workshops, and I'm all set to do that by quilting real quilts, not just practice samples!

My To-Dos for Tuesday are:

• Finish piecing the remaining nine flying geese arcs for Lars's Geese In Circles graduation quilt, which is due at my church office exactly two months from today (yikes!)
• Cut out the curved purple background sections for all 48 blocks of Lars's quilt
• Start removing foundation papers and piecing the blocks

Grad Quilt In Progress: Foundation Pieced Arced Flying Geese with Binding and Backing Fabrics

My 72 x 96 XL Twin Design for Lars's Geese In Circles Quilt

I really, really would like to have this top completely pieced before I head to Paducah on Easter Monday, which would give me all of May to get it quilted, labeled and bound in time for the May 26th deadline.  Wish me luck!

I'm linking up with:

TUESDAY

·       To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com

WEDNESDAY

·      Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/

·      WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/

Miscellaneous Musings On Borders, Backings and Bindings (Oh My!)

First off, I'm glad to report that my Pineapple Log Cabin quilt top is finally, FINALLY finished, a mere FIVE years after I started making it in June of 2014.  Unfortunately, I have no glorious "ta-da" photos to share because the quilt top is a massive 120" x 120" and, with all of those pieces (3,492 pieces not including border strips, but who's counting, right?) and three layers of fabric at every seam allowance, it weighs a ton.  I was concerned about the border fabric tearing from the weight of the quilt if I dragged my menfolk out to do a fancy photo shoot somewhere before the top gets layered and quilted.  So this is all you get today:

Pineapple Log Cabin Top is Finished!  120 x 120 with Borders

I am so, SO HAPPY with the my border choices.  That Kaffe Fassett floral print ties all of my scrappy strips together, just like I'd planned it all along.  

Here you can see the quilt top draped across my 12' APQS quilting frame:

This is What a 120 inch Quilt Looks Like On a 12 Foot Frame

This quilt was my catalyst for buying a longarm machine in the first place, the reason I ordered my APQS Millennium longarm machine with a 12' frame, and why I nearly went with a 14' frame instead.  My pineapple quilt top will fit, but just barely!  I got my binding strips all cut for this quilt and have purchased and prewashed the backing fabric.  

Backing and Binding for Pineapple Quilt

I just need to press my backing yardage, cut it into three widths, and seam it together...  But then it all gets folded and neatly hung in the guest closet.  I can't even think about quilting this until after Lars's graduation quilt is 100% finished, and that's not happening until I get back from my marathon of longarm quilting workshops with Lisa Calle and Judi Madsen at Spring Quilt Week in Paducah.

Speaking of Lars's Geese In Circles graduation quilt, it's coming along nicely, too.  I have 26 of the 48 flying geese arcs pieced, and I lucked out with the discovery of the PERFECT batik binding fabric in, of all places, my very own STASH!

Binding Fabric Discovered In My Fabric Stash!

Very excited about that discovery, because usually when I find the perfect fabric for a project in my stash, I don't have enough of it.  The half yard cut of this fabric was just enough to cut binding strips for Lars's XL Twin graduation quilt (72" x 96", sized for a college dorm mattress).    

While I was in Binding Mode, I also located an orangey-gold metallic fabric that I'd chosen to bind my Jingle quilt and cut that into strips.  This green swirly fabric is the intended backing fabric for that quilt, it's already been prewashed, so it just needs to be cut into lengths and seamed together before I can pack it away with the quilt top (Jingle needs custom quilting, so don't expect to see that one quilted right away, either).

Binding and Backing for Jingle Quilt

I made the jaunt to my not-quite-local quilt shop yesterday to select backing and binding fabric for the vintage quilt that I'm repairing and requilting for a friend, and I am really, really happy with what I came up with.  The challenges and objectives for this shopping trip were as follows:

• This quilt was originally backed and bound with a cheerful and hyper-bright, Day Glo MOD orange solid fabric that gave me a strong 1960s vibe, and tied with matching orange yarn

  

  Vintage 1960s Leather Jacket in Exact Same Shade as Original Backing and Binding Fabric

• The quilt's current owner is ready to part ways with the orange, but since the quilt's value is sentimental, I didn't want to introduce anything for the backing or binding that would substantially alter the color palette and make it seem less like the quilt that Grandma made
• Since the current owner likes to use this quilt as a picnic blanket for concerts in the park, I wanted a print backing fabric that wasn't too light in color so that minor grass stains or soiling wouldn't stand out as much.  The goal here is to prolong the life of the quilt by minimizing the frequency of laundering.
• I preferred a print backing fabric in case my quilting stitches and tension are not 100% perfect under magnification...  Print backings hide a multitude of sins, and if there's one thing I'm sure of during the season of Lent it's that I'm a wretched sinner!  ;-)
• The fabrics in the quilt top are severely faded from their original vibrant hues.  This is challenging because I want any new prints to complement the originals, but although '60s and '70s inspired prints about in today's quilt shops, those fabrics all have bright, saturated colors that would draw way too much attention to themselves.

Backing and Binding Fabrics for Vintage Quilt Project

Since the quilt top fabrics have been subjected to many washings over the years, I prewashed my new backing and binding fabrics in HOT water with regular laundry detergent.  I don't think any bleaching is necessary, though -- these fabrics already blend right in with the quilt top.  The purple fabric with the swirls is the backing fabric and the soft coral orange will be the binding, so there's some continuity with the original orange but now it's in a much smaller dose and more subdued.

Purple Backing Print, Coral Binding Print

Best of all, I found both of these fabrics at the back of the store in the sale section for 30% off.  When does THAT happen?!

So, it being Tuesday, let's set some goals.  Here's what I hope to accomplish in the next week:

• Finish piecing another 12 of the arced flying geese for Lars's graduation quilt (goal is 36 by week's end)
• Press, seam, and store backing fabric for the Pineapple and Jingle quilts
• Press and seam the vintage quilt backing and load it on the longarm frame
• Press and cut coral binding strips for the vintage quilt

I'd really like to get the quilt top off the wall, patched, and loaded onto the frame for quilting this week, too, but that would be an awful lot to bite off in one week and the graduation quilt is still my primary focus.

I'm linking today's post up with:

TUESDAY

·      Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at http://www.cleverchameleon.com.au

·       To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com

WEDNESDAY

·      Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/

·      WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

THURSDAY

·      Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/  

FRIDAY

·      Finish It Up Friday at http://www.sillymamaquilts.com

·      Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com

·      Finished Or Not Friday at http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/